Talk:French language

This article currently says:

French became astoundingly popular to the point where many educated people around the world could read it and use it for international communication. It became known as the lingua franca.

1. it is true that French did become so popular educated people in the rest of Europe learned it, and that educated people from different cultures might speak it to one another, even when it was not the first language of either of them.
2. However, I believe as late as the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, other languages related to French, continued to be spoken in remote areas of France. I believe Napoleon enforced the use of Parisian French, with an iron hand.
3. I believe that lingua franca predates the enlightenment, and was not Parisian French, or even a dialect of French. I believe it was a pidgin, a hybrid language. My understanding was that it was used by seafarers, and in port cities, and that while it used a lot of words borrowed from French its grammar and syntax were a hybrid of all the Mediterranean languages, including the Arabic language... Geo Swan (talk) 05:48, 27 February 2025 (EST)

1-2 - true. Especially in southern France there were other dialects. There is even a movement to revive them to some extent (Nicard/Provencal/Occitan). Napoleon probably grew up speaking a nonstandard dialect himself.

3 - That's interesting about lingua franca. I didn't know it went back so far. The article could use an update. Enki (talk) 14:50, 27 February 2025 (EST)